A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

Direction I.

1. Direct. That they be all present at the beginning of a duty, and continue till it be ended. In some Families there is great disorder in this respect; Servants, either by reason of the backwardness of their hearts, for want of love to, and delight in Prayer, or by not wisely forecasting their business, come when the Prayer is half over, or else go out before it is ended, or if at the beginning and end, yet to look after one thing or other, make breaches and interruptions in the Prayer, by going out and coming in once or twice or more in the Prayer-time, which, if possible, should be carefully avoided: for Family Prayer being ordinarily not very long, to lose any part of it cannot but be to the detriment and disadvantage of such persons; for when their affections begin to be warmed, by these interruptions they are cooled and damped again. You should be more willing to go to your Prayer than to your meat when hungry, by how much your Souls are better than your bodies, and serving God better than feeding of the body. If business come when we are eating at our Table, we commonly let it stay till we have done; what business shall wait upon you in that case, let it do so also in the other, that you might not lose the benefit of the Prayer. Numa Pompilius made a Law amongst the Romans, that men should not serve the Gods as they passed by, or were in haste, or did any other business; but that they should worship and pray to them, when they had time and leisure, and all other business set apart. Plutarch.

1. Direct. That they be all present at the beginning of a duty, and continue till it be ended. In some Families there is great disorder in this respect; Servants, either by reason of the backwardness of their hearts, for want of love to, and delight in Prayer, or by not wisely forecasting their business, come when the Prayer is half over, or else go out before it is ended, or if at the beginning and end, yet to look after one thing or other, make breaches and interruptions in the Prayer, by going out and coming in once or twice or more in the Prayer-time, which, if possible, should be carefully avoided: for Family Prayer being ordinarily not very long, to lose any part of it cannot but be to the detriment and disadvantage of such persons; for when their affections begin to be warmed, by these interruptions they are cooled and damped again. You should be more willing to go to your Prayer than to your meat when hungry, by how much your Souls are better than your bodies, and serving God better than feeding of the body. If business come when we are eating at our Table, we commonly let it stay till we have done; what business shall wait upon you in that case, let it do so also in the other, that you might not lose the benefit of the Prayer. Numa Pompilius made a Law amongst the Romans, that men should not serve the Gods as they passed by, or were in haste, or did any other business; but that they should worship and pray to them, when they had time and leasure, and all other business set apart. Plutarch.